A.A. Dear PWers !!
I know you guys are still waiting for pictures of Chitral but i had very short time to plan and execute 2 big trips in one season so my apologies for delay in Chitral 2014 travelogue.
And here i am .... with another very interesting thread which will be first detailed coverage and documentation of Concordia trek In Sha Allah !!
The actual plan was something else ..... "Project 8000ers" ... however, weather and other circumstances lead to postponement of the Project so i will cover Concordia trek in detail in this travelogue. The "Project 8000ers" will come back In Sha Allah once complete as a separate thread with some interesting plan changes and i hope to execute it in near future In Sha Allah.
Tour Members:
- Qari Ahmed Rashid Obaidi - Till Skardu
- Abbas Zaheer
- Faraz Azam
- Muhammad Rashid
and me
Daywise Itinerary:
1-4 Aug 2014:
We covered Fairy Meadows and Nanga Parbat base camp in first 4 days however it will be posted as part of Project 8000ers later and this travelogue will start from Day 5 when we were in Skardu.
Note: Members can post pictures of our travel from respective homes to Skardu except NP diversion.
5 Aug 2014:
Full day was spent in Skardu to prepare for the trek. We met the operator and team, did lots of shopping for food and trek equipment. Also, took some stuff on rent.
6 Aug 2014:
Jeep drive from Skardu to Ashkole through Shigar and Braldu Valleys. We started late due to some last minute arrangement delays by operator so reached Ashkole just after sunset. There was a custom made landslide which was on rehm-o-karam of locals as they were blackmailing the tourists by charging them extra jeep fares. Night stay in a basic hotel room in Ashkole while our porter team got ready and whole luggage was divided into weights of 25kg and distributed amongst porters.
7 Aug 2014:
We started trek from Ashkole at 6:45 a.m. and reached Jhola by 3:20 p.m. A long and hot walk of 20 km. We stopped for lunch at midway campsite called Khorofon.
8 Aug 2014:
Started trek from Jhola at 6:30 a.m. and reach Paiyu at 3 p.m. Today, trek went well till lunch break in Burdomal camp site but 2nd session was very hot and we had to take a midway break under trees to cool down ourselves.
9 Aug 2014:
Weather was bad early morning so we waited till 9 a.m. and then finally decided to carry on with today's plan of visiting Trango Towers. Since, we were based in Paiyu so we did a day visit to Trango and came back to Paiyu. Abbas and Faraz returned in start of trek and took the day off while M. Rashid and myself continued the trek to Trango Towers and reached there in 6.5 hrs. We returned after sunset around 8 p.m.
10 Aug 2014:
Rest Day in Paiyu. We took showers, washed clothes and enjoyed the remaining day in camps.
11 Aug 2014:
Toughest day on trek. We did Paiyu to Urdukas in one go while now it has become trek of 2 days or atleast 1.5 days due to a huge lake formed beside midway campsite called Khoburtse. It took us 4 hours to climb on Baltoro glacier and cross to other side then another 2.5 hrs to reach Khoburtse. We took 2 hours off with a little nap and then resumed 4.5 hrs trek till Urdukas.
12 Aug 2014:
Today's target was to reach Goro II. A little tough start but overall an easy day of 6-7 hours and pretty straightforward after reaching Goro I. Midway break was at Goro I.
13 Aug 2014:
Another easy day and straightforward walk from Goro II to Concordia. Weather was quite clear earlier so in second session, i went ahead to get clear shots of K2 before clouds move in but army post before Concordia told me that K2 is covered with clouds at the moment so i turned off the burners and relaxed there. They made Tang and tea for us while team approached one by one. After one hour rest, we reached Concordia. Couldn't see K2 on this day while some people went out of camps at night when clouds disappeared.
14 Aug 2014:
My day started with sunrise shots of clear K2 from viewpoint area and later on we spent the rest day in celebrations of Independence Day of Pakistan at different locations in Concordia.
Abbas returned back in the morning as he was not feeling well while we celebrated 14 Aug with Pizza Party in Concordia.
15 Aug 2014:
First day of bad weather while we started the trek for G1 and G2 basecamps. We stopped for lunch at Shigrin campsite which is just after Shama checkpost of army. Sky opened up at that time and snowfall stopped. However, we faced straight blizzard in face during second session of trek and eventually had to send one guy to stop the porters and camp after 2.5 hours of blizzard facing. Reached campsite after 3.5 hrs which was near Mor (turn) of the glaciers. At Mor, Baltoro glacier ends so today we almost completed the trek on whole of Baltoro glacier. Evening was very cold but calm.
16 Aug 2014:
Bad weather got worse and we saw 3-4 inches snowfall all over the place when we woke up in the morning. Our cook made a vital mistake by not carrying kerosene oil enough to stay longer. Somebody told him that there is 10kg kerosene at basecamp so use that while we couldn't reach basecamp. I already had one reserve day for bad weather at GI, GII basecamps but now there was no choice but to return as our oil finished during breakfast preparations and gas cylinder had no guarantee to work flawlessly. So, we started the return in continuous snowfall and stopped at Shama checkpost of Pak army. They treated us very well even with overcrowded igloos due to bad weather. Made tea and parathas for us but eventually we had to leave for Concordia as our camp and luggage was ahead and there was no space in army camp. This was the worst time and weather was now a snowstorm with fast wind throwing snow straight on face or from left or right ... wind was circling and we started to find the way as now it was almost 6-8 inch snow and tracks of our porters were gone. 3 locals were with us and they started making way by following the army comms wire. Eventually, weather calmed down but snow increased to 1 foot and now we had to stamp our each step into snow and then take out and go for next step. Finally reached Concordia in 3.5 hrs without any mishap Alhamdulillah.
17 Aug 2014:
First thing i heard in the morning was Faraz sb ready to go back with continuous snowfall. The team was feeling the weather conditions while i had asked them to wait till 19th but i heard the same thing for the whole day and next day i decided to move back and drop the remaining plan. I had a wonderful afternoon to sunset photography session at different locations in Concordia.
18 Aug 2014:
A clear day like nothing happened ever and it remained cloudless for next 2 days ... yes not a single cloud in the sky. You know what was worse, after 2-3 km from Concordia, there was hardly a couple of inch snow.
Anyways, we started the return leg and did it in 3 days. First day was Concordia to Urdukas.
19 Aug 2014:
This day was Urdukas to Paiyu and was equally tough as it was while coming up.
20 Aug 2014:
On 3rd day of return we did Paiyu to Khorofon and i really liked the camping there.
21 Aug 2014:
2.5 hour trek in the morning and we were back in Ashkole and then a loader jeep ride till Skardu.
22 Aug 2014:
We tried uselessly for a flight from Skardu and it was as futile as expected due to over confirmations and no chance for chance tickets. Then we went to Jaglot for hiace but its timing was in evening. Luckily we got AC bus coming from Gilgit which had a break near Jaglot so we took the last seat and bumped our journey till Pindi.
23 Aug 2014:
Early morning arrival at Pindi and containers were open
So, i took Daewoo and reached Lahore by 2 p.m.
Things missed and will be covered in later trips:
- Project 8000ers
Cameras used:
- Canon 6D
- Nikon D7000
- Nikon D200
I hope you will enjoy the coverage of Baltoro Kingdom
Regards
Mobeen
We at Concordia alongwith another group from Kamoke